O steadfast ones, gathered beneath the Abhá Beauty's standard of oneness, O faithful
lovers of `Abdu'l-Bahá! Sad news has come to us out
of Iran in recent days, and it has intensely grieved the
entire Bahá'í world: they have, in most parts of that
land, set bonfires of envy and malevolence, and
hoisted the banner of aggression against this
much-wronged community; they have left no means
untried, no plot or strategy neglected, and have arisen
with extreme hostility and spite to pull out by their
very roots the trees of this garden of God.

2

From every side, they are aiming their arrows at
hearts that rejoice in the knowledge of God and are
filled with the love of Him. From every ambush,
they are hunting down gazelles that pasture in the
meadows of His unity. They are taking the men and
women believers captive, and making orphans of
the children. They are plundering the believers'
property, sacking their hearths and homes.

3

Those, however, who have been trained and
educated in the school of God, even when coming to
such a pass, are resignation itself, and to the brutal
aggressor they are as the living waters of Heaven.
They are rivers of pure mercy and peace. Though
powerful and well able to defend themselves, they
never raise a hand to strike, nor do they open their
lips to protest. They confront the others' taunts and
curses with prayers that God will forgive them, and
their reply to the wounds of bullet and sword is to
offer milk and honey. They kiss the murderer's
hand; as intoxicated lovers, they drain the martyr's
cup.

4

Such is the way of those who are attracted to His
Kingdom, and that other is the behaviour of the
foolish, the heedless of God. So has it been, at the
time when the Manifestations of God appeared: the
heedless and the ignorant turned upon their
heavenly Teachers, and the diseased harried and
tortured their loving Physicians in the spirit, idly
thinking that they were acquiring merit thereby.
Thus have their imaginings always been, at the
outset of every Faith: that by such cruel acts they
could destroy that seed, the Word of God; or that by
blowing against it, they could put out the lamp that
He has lit; or that by directing a storm of denial
against them, they could bring down His trees, so
flourishing, so firmly rooted in His Kingdom, or lay
His fair gardens in ruins.

5

But as, time and again, experience has shown, in
every age they have only seen verified the Blessed
Beauty's assurance that calamity's rushing rain is the
greening of His planted field, and afflictions are the oil
that feeds and adds to the radiance of the lamp of God.
And then, as the days go by, and they see with their
own eyes the Day-Star in its noonday splendour,
witness the bewildering richness of the fields that
God has sown, behold His great and all-pervading
Cause--then the fires of hatred and envy flame out of
the hell of their natures; they can contain themselves
no longer, and the truth of the holy words is proved,
that God will not bring down a people from their
station unless they have corrupted their good qualities
themselves, and it becomes clearly shown that
God brings on the downfall of the heedless little by
little and in ways that they know not.

6

During occurrences of this kind, it is incumbent
upon the believers in other countries to immediately
adopt prudent and reasonable measures, that through
wise methods such fires may be put out. Let them not
allow the claws of ravening wolves to be reddened
with their brothers' blood; let them defend God's
lambs from the hungry leopard's knife-sharp teeth;
let them guard the members of the one and single
Bahá'í family from the poisoned sting of scorpions
and snakes.

7

This is the unique obligation of the Bahá'ís of
the world. Addressing the believers, Baha'u'llah
says: `Be ye as the fingers of one hand, the members
of one body.' This means that just as each member
safeguards the rest, warding off any threatened
harm, so too must the individual Bahá'ís do,
whether in the East or the West. At this time it is
urgently needful, and it is the request of this grieving
servant, that the assembly of the believers in that
area act at once, and take the case to the ambassador
of the Iranian government. Let them tell him, `The
holy Cause of Bahá'u'lláh has so unified us who are
His world-wide followers, and has brought us so
close together, that we have become like a single
body. If the foot of a Bahá'í, in the farthest Eastern
land, is so much as scratched by a thorn, it is even as
if we Bahá'ís here in the West had suffered the
same. We have now received word from Írán that
in Shíráz, in Sultanabad, in Hamadán, in
Káshán, even in Tihrán, and in other places as
well, the fanaticism of the ignorant and heedless has
been fanned into flame, and that agitators are stirring
up the populace--with the result that our brothers
and sisters, who are but well-wishers of all humankind
and are indeed the world's only hope for peace,
and are obedient and helpful citizens of Iran and her
government, find themselves under attack and
pushed into the heart of the fire.

8

`We therefore request the representative of Iran
to ask his government to safeguard our brothers in
Iran from the aggressions of their enemies, and to
deliver that flock of God's lovers from the claws of
the wolf, and provide for their security and well-being.
By bringing us word of this outcome, Írán
will earn the deep and heartfelt gratitude of
thousands of Bahá'ís who reside in these countries,
and widespread appreciation will be voiced by
us in our many gatherings, of her government's
good offices on our behalf.'

9

And further, if it be possible, you should make
this same representation through your own ambassador
in Tihrán, so that he may direct the attention
of the Iranian authorities to these persecutions, and
awaken that government to the possibility of divine
retribution and to the shameful stigma occasioned
by such actions directed against this innocent community
by the heedless and ignorant amongst the
mass of the people.

10

Let him make them aware that there are thousands
of adherents of this Faith of the love of God around
the world, who are gazing in astonishment and
disbelief at the savage acts now being perpetrated
against their brothers, and are eagerly waiting to
hear that the government has come to the rescue of
this unique, this law-abiding people, who are the
well-wishers of mankind, from the attacks of the
ravening wolves.

11

I pray for you continually at the Holy Threshold,
and call upon Him on behalf of each one of you, and
beg that He will bestow on you the blessings of the
Kingdom.